Page 69 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

56 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS

pollution. They did so in order, as they felt, to safeguard the purity of the
soul so that ultimately it would arise free from uncleanness. They main-
tained, like Bardaisan, the immortality of the soul. The theme of the Phoenix
mosaic, on the other hand, dated A.D. 235-6, reflects a different view. It
depicts a tomb in the shape of a conventional arcosolium; above it stands
a wreathed pillar, and surmounting the whole is the phoenix, symbol
of the renewal of life.1 Only when the funeral rites are properly con-
ducted, we may conclude, will resurrection follow, that is, resurrection of
the body.
It is evident that paganism at Edessa incorporated much of the beliefs
and practices of neighbouring cult-centres, notably those of Hierapolis. But
a significant change in direction seems to have occurred under a certain
King Abgar. The Book of the Laws of Countries, written possibly at the
beginning of the third century, provides almost contemporary evidence. It
states explicitly that, 'when Abgar the king believed (in Christ) he decreed
that anyone who castrated himself should have his hand cut off. And from
that day to this time, no man castrates himself in the country of Edessa.'
This Abgar is credited, then, with abandoning a rite that was a central
feature of the worship of the Mother Goddess at Hierapolis. It was the same
Abgar whom Christendom was later to associate with the evangelization of
Edessa, though we need not assume that he was himself a convert to the new
religion.2 It was also Abgar the statue of whose wife possibly appeared on a
column at Edessa, in the place where Hera's figure appeared at Hierapolis.
What were the influences that would have led Abgar to take this momentous
step ? The age in which he lived was witnessing a change in religious environ-
ment that was to have far-reaching effects not only on Edessa itself, but on
the more general development of religion in Mesopotamia.
Light has been thrown on this development by monuments recently
discovered at Sumatar Harabesi in the Tektek mountains. At this deserted
oasis, sixty kilometres south-east of Urfa, a group of seven or eight ruined
buildings, of different shapes, perhaps tombs,3 form an uneven arc, at varying
distances, around a central mount—a bare narrow rock, fifty metres high and
of about the same length. The mount has an uninterrupted view to the east;
and clearly it was a sacred place. On its northern flank are two reliefs. One is
the bust of a male personage, without a hat but with his hair secured by a
headband, a bow and a half-loop on either side of his head ;4 the other is a
full-length statue of a man wearing the same long coat as that shown in the
Family Portrait mosaic of Edessa.5 Both reliefs have Syriac texts at their
side. One states that the full-length relief was put up at the command of
1 PL 43. their hair in long locks to the surprise of the
z Cf. p. 70 below. Caliph al-Ma'mun, when he visited the city in
3 See p. 32 above. circa 830. See the text in Chwolson, op. cit.
4 Cf. p. 41. The pagans of Harran wore 5 On this costume see p. 40; PL 406, 41.

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